Hopenhagen Celebrates Earth Hour with City Leaders at COP15

COPENHAGEN, December 18, 2009 – Citizens of Hopenhagen gathered in City Hall Square with Mayors from around the world to mark WWF’s Earth Hour Hopenhagen in a show of support for reaching a global deal on climate change.

As the lights were switched off, West Wing actor Bradley Whitford made a moving declaration of hope to the assembled crowd: “On behalf of my children and my children’s children, I hope our leaders have the imagination and vision to face the issue of a lifetime.”

While politicians struggled to reach agreement at the UN Conference outside of town, city leaders, NGOs and ordinary citizens were busy recording messages of hope, united in a mood of optimism that the will of the people would prevail. The number of citizens of Hopenhagen is now 6 million, showing how the campaign has captured people’s imaginations. “People’s ambassador” David Kroodsma spoke of the honour and privilege of representing citizens of Hopenhagen and called on political leaders to seize the moment.

"We are grateful to all the citizens of the world who have reached out to their leaders and made their voices heard. They have truly embraced the idea behind Hopenhagen," said Seth Farbman, Managing Director of OgilvyEarth. OgilvyEarth and Ogilvy & Mather created the Hopenhagen campaign in support of the United Nations Climate Change Conference.

To become a citizen of Hopenhagen and see the latest messages of hope visit hopenhagen.org.

The Hopenhagen movement is a global movement to inspire people of the world to share their voice of support for a positive outcome at COP15. Those voices are shown in the messages from the citizens of Hopenhagen on hopenhagen.org. Hopenhagen partnered with WWF’s Earth Hour for Earth Hour Hopenhagen.